A 7 Layer Cake of Disappointment
January 5th, 2012 by slangon
Those of you who have been reading this blog regularly for a while are probably aware that there has been an on-going saga with me and the Dale Davis autograph redemption that I pulled from a box of 2010 Allen & Ginter about a year and a half ago. Well, a month ago to the day, I finally received it. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I was none too happy with the results. How was I disappointed? Let me count the ways.
Layer 1: For those of you who hadn’t been witness to that snails race of a redemption process, on several occasions, I brought up my anxiousness at finally receiving this card. That built a good foundation for my impending sense of doom.
Layer 2: In the beginning I would check the Topps redemption site once or twice a month, and would inevitably see the same “Pending” message next to Dale Davis’ name. After a while I gave up even checking. I happened to be cleaning out my inbox one day and saw some email related to this card and figured I check again. To my surprise, it actually said “Shipped”. Lo and behold, even after seeing that updated status, it ended up being almost a month and a half and several emails later before there was a package in my mailbox.
Layer 3: I immediately got a sinking feeling on seeing the envelope in my mailbox. It wasn’t the 5×7 or so bubble mailer that you usually get cards in. It was a roughly 8×10 stiff envelope, really thin. I don’t know why, but that didn’t give me a good feeling. I think I might’ve been secretly hoping that Topps would decide to throw in something extra to compensate me for all the delays. There’s no way there could’ve been more than 1 card in that thing, but why was it so big?
Layer 4: Not that I end up getting too many autographed cards, but Ginter has long been one of my favorite products to get autographs from. Even if it’s not a Met or even a star player, I just love the whole framed mini concept. Therefore, my disappointment was deepened was I pulled this thing out of said envelope.
There’s a frame on there, but not in the way you’d expect from an Allen & Ginter hit.
Layer 5: As I just mentioned, I really love the framed MINI theme that Topps has going with their Ginter hits. I also mentioned wondering why the envelope they shipped it in was so big. This card is not a mini. For comparison, here it sits with the redemption card for it that I pulled all those months ago.
I’ve been sort of too disgusted to properly check, but I think that’s more the size of one of them cabinet sized box loaders that you pull out of Allen & Ginter. Of course, thinking about it logically, it makes complete sense that trying to get a legally blind 80 year old man to sign a piece of cardboard the size of a matchbook cover is ludicrous, but hey, thinking about it logically, grown men shouldn’t get excited about pieces of cardboard.
Layer 6: Let’s forget for a second that this “card” isn’t framed. Let’s forget for a second that it’s about 20 times the size of a normal card. Let’s forget for a second that now I have no idea what to do with this monstrosity. It just feels cheap. It’s not even printed on the same quality stock as a Ginter base card. It’s not even printed on the same quality stock as 1990 Topps. It’s super flimsy feeling. It feels like a laminated placemat. I’m tempted to just use it as such so my son stops spilling ketchup all over the kitchen table.
Layer 7: I’m not normally one to write angry letters or demand refunds, but after all the delays and then finally seeing just what it is that I’ve been waiting on, I did write a stern email to Topps letting them know how disappointed I was. I honestly was writing it as some sort of “You guys suck, now give me some cards to shut me up” tactic. I genuinely wanted them to know that I have been a big fan of them for a long time and that it makes me sad to see them treat their product that way. Two days later, I received an automated email response. I don’t recall the exact wording of the email since I deleted it from my inbox a while ago, but it basically said that due to a backlog of customer support inquiries, they were unable to help me at this time. That was a month ago.
Now that we have our seven layer cake all assembled, let’s ice that sucker. I don’t know how well you can see the upper right hand corner of that card, but here’s a close-up.
Yessir. Those are 2 big dings in the corner of my sons new placemat. Terrible. I don’t even know what to say about this anymore, so I’ll just let Mr. Davis’ face do the talking.
I’m sorry, I can’t stop laughing. You even brought a tear to my eye I’m laughing so hard!
So, so sorry about getting Toppsized! They really are an extremely arrogant company. No customer service, too many “mailing it in” products. And just a total “we know what we’re doing and we don’t care what you think” attitude. I hate them. I pray SOMEONE will get a license from MLB so we can have a choice again.
I think it is kinda cool. I hate the framed mimi auto cards. I always thought they should do away with the frame part and just have autoed mini cards, like the ones that come out of rip cards. If it wouldn’t have been an 80 year old blind bowler you would have probably liked it more.
Topps websites are a joke anyway. I’m still waiting on my 2011 John McEnroe framed auto. I’m hoping it comes before the end of the world in December! Too bad it’s damaged, but it’s a nice oddball.
I actually like it more that it’s an 80 year old blind bowler. That was the whole reason I chose to wait the year and a half for it rather than take whatever substitution Topps would’ve given me. I guess it’s more that it’s so far from what I had in mind, coupled with the fact that there were so many delays, coupled with the fact that it was damaged on top of everything else. Maybe it’ll grow on me with time.
LOL on that shite. too bad you had such a sucky experience, but nothing brings out the hilarious irony and cynical bile within a good writer like a disappointment such as yours. great stuff to read. love that dudes boris karloff mug..and lets face it – that off-centered, makes-me-wanna-scream signature totally seals the deal.
I think it’s reasonable to have expected a regular sized thing when all the other autos are smaller aside from toppers. And like you said, the size wouldn’t have been as big a deal if not for the poor shipping, damage, and general delays. Otherwise it’s a neat piece, big or small. But the rest leaves a sour taste in your mouth.
Should you ever decide to part with it, I’d happily add it to my Ginter collection…but regardless of that, it still stinks that Topps couldn’t be bothered to ship the card properly. I don’t know whether it is arrogance or ineptitude that plagues them more.
Topps and good customer service don’t really seem to go together.
I will admit that it made sense for them to go the box-topper route for an autograph from a legally-blind bowler, though.
Actually, the envelope was perfectly fine and it didn’t seem as though the card was bouncing around inside. I know for sure that I didn’t ding it up pulling it out. I just think they sent me an f’ed up card.
“…my son’s place mat.”
Awesome.
I remember how stoked I was to pull a relic of an 80 yr. old, blind bowler… Then how jealous I was when you got the auto redemption.
I feel for you. Aside from the dings, If they would have called the redemption an auto boxtopper, there wouldn’t be an issue.
I’ve been waiting to see how he was going to sign the mini card…
You COULD make an amazing cut auto card… Jussayin.